Summary of Christological Issues in the New Testament
Christology is the question of who Jesus was, who others said he was, or who he himself said he was.In terms of vocabulary, Jesus Christ means "Jesus, Messiah" (only later was Christ used as a surname). There is no suggestion of divinity in the term, Messiah.
Similarly, the word Lord can mean "sir," and does not imply divinity.
"Son of God" or "sons of God" is a commnon Hebrew phrase (see Psalms 2; 110) and does not imply special (divine) sonship, merely adoptive sonship, as in Nathan's promise to David in 2 Samuel.
It's true Jesus felt close to God and called God "father," but he also advised his disciples to call God "father" (as in The Lord's Prayer).
The Gospels reflect a tension among early Christians between a low and high christology: a belief in the humanity of Jesus (however exceptional) and a belief that Jesus was divine.
The tension can be seen in verses that seem to "correct" earlier versions of Jesus. For example, Mark is often "corrected" by Luke or Matthew; so, for example, where Mark has the cursed fig tree wither after a delay, Matthew has it wither immediately. Where Mark's Jesus tries twice to cure a blind man, Matthew's Jesus tries once. Where Mark's Mary thinks Jesus is crazy, this is omitted in later gospels. Where Mark's Jesus has to be told of a storm, in Matthew he knows it. In Mark Peter tells Jesus "you are the Christ" but in Matthew he adds, "son of the living God" (16:16).
In Mark Jesus doesn't know who touches his robe, but he knows in Luke.
These corrections reflect on Jesus' wisdom too. Jesus wrongly calls Abiathar high priest in Mark 2:26 when it was Ahimelech who was high priest (so the other gospels omit the name).
In Matthew, Jesus confuses the murdered prophet Zechariah with the minor prophet, corrected by Luke (MT 23:35; 2 CH 24:20f).
Jesus attributes Psalm 110 to David, but modern scholarship disputes this. Jesus calls Jonah a prophet while modern scholarship reads Jonah as fiction.
In Matthew Jesus asks for an ass and a colt, misunderstanding Hebrew parallelism, which poetically repeats an idea; Luke omits the second animal.
None of this reflects on who Jesus was, merely on who the apostles and writers thought he was. The fact that the Gospels begin with a low christology (Mark) and end in a high christology (John) does not mean this was fabricated, merely that the apostles and evangelists were slow to realize who Jesus was.
This is reflected in the various christologies in the New Testament. These include a Parousia (Second Coming) christology, and christologies of Resurrection, Transfiguration, Baptism, Ministry, Conception (the Nativity stories in Luke and Matthew), and Preexistence, as in John's Incipit (also see 1 Corinthians 10:4; 2 Corinthians 8:9). That is, Jesus as Christ is revealed at different stages.
Acts 3:20: "and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you, even Jesus." The assumption is Jesus will be Lord only after his Parousia (Second Coming).
Catholic scholar, Raymond E. Brown, on whom I rely for this summary, sees a Parousia christology in the prayer, "Maranatha" ("Our Lord, come!") (1 Corinthains 16:22, Revelation 22:20). That is, Jesus is not Lord until he comes again. In other words, the christological event is in the Parousia.
Acts 2:33: "Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit." (Based on Psalm 110 as Acts makes clear by quoting it.) This is a Resurrection christology: Jesus becomes Lord only after his Passion and death.
We see this also in Acts 13:33: "What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: 'You are my Son, today I have become your Father.'"
Paul repeats this Resurrection christology in Romans (1:3-4): "Born of David's seed by the flesh; but Son of God by the Holy Spirit, by his resurrection from the dead: Lord Jesus Christ." Again Jesus is Lord only after his Resurrection.
The second Psalm is used for a baptism christology in the Synoptics (Mark, Matthew, Luke), modified by combining it with Isaiah's Suffering Servant, 42:1 ("in whom I am pleased").
A Ministry christology is evident in Jesus' miracles (loaves and fishes, calming of the sea, etc.), the new laws in Matthew 5 (the Sermon on the Mount: a christological event in which Jesus speaks as God), and the I Am sayings in the Gospels, notably the seven in John, but also, "Before Abraham was, I Am."
The Transfiguration (Jesus appears with Moses and Elijah) is another christological event and repeats the Baptism verses, where God announces Jesus' Sonship.
Some scholars believe the christological event was progressively pushed back to an earlier period, thus (as we have seen) from the Parousia, to the Resurrection, the Transfiguration, Baptism, Conception, Beginning (the Preexistence Christology of John's Incipit: "In the beginning was the Word").
Hence John's Jesus is fully assured on the Cross ("It is finished") (compare: "Why have you forsaken me?"). And John's Jesus cleanses the Temple at the beginning of his ministry instead of at the end, a christological event that defines who Jesus is from the first (as do other "signs," such as turning water into wine at Cana).
These different christologies may reflect not uncertainty who Jesus was but an historical discovery of who Jesus was, necessarily limited by human understanding. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians: "From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer" (5:16), combining an anti-World polemic with the christological event of Jesus' Resurrection, which places "life" in another world.
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